The aviation phonetic alphabet and numbers

Alfa to Zulu, how pilots say numbers on the radio, and the small pronunciation rules that make you sound confident.

The short answer

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee, Zulu.

Numbers

• 3 is said "tree", 5 "fife" and 9 "niner"
• Thousands are said as "thousand": 2,500 ft is "two thousand five hundred"
• Frequencies are read digit by digit: 118.705 is "one one eight decimal seven zero five"
• Headings are always three digits: 050 is "zero five zero"

Why the odd spellings

Alfa and Juliett are spelled that way so speakers of other languages pronounce them correctly. The alphabet is the same worldwide, so your callsign sounds identical whether you are talking to Munich, Madrid or Miami.